Archive for the ‘NRA’ Category

BANGOR, Maine (AP) — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, campaigning with an eye on winning at least one of Maine’s electoral votes, criticized Democrat Barack Obama on Thursday for not disavowing a community activist group that registers voters.

The group known as ACORN — the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — has drawn condemnation from the Republican ticket as its workers sign up voters in swing states. Nearly a dozen states and the FBI are looking into allegations of voter registration fraud.

ACORN officials have denied allegations of concerted, widespread fraud but acknowledge that some of the group’s registration workers might have turned in duplicate applications or falsified information to pad their pay. ACORN says it it has registered 1.3 million young people, minorities, and poor and working-class voters.

”In this election, it’s a choice between a candidate who won’t disavow a group committing voter fraud, and a leader who won’t tolerate voter fraud,” Palin said.

In the debate Wednesday night with Republican John McCain, Obama denied any significant ties to ACORN. Earlier this week, Obama said ACORN was not advising his campaign and that registration problems shouldn’t be used as an excuse to keep people from turning out.

Palin stuck to familiar themes of limited government, lower taxes and gun rights and listed energy and government reform among her top priorities. She said the people of Maine know that taxes — the state has some of the nation’s highest — are not the way to ”grow the economy.”

Her visit came as the Republican National Committee has decided to stop….

The crossroads between tragedy and policy is a treacherous one. There’s harm in converting one’s immediate, gut-level emotions into law, but by the same token, it’s not smart to ignore a drastic turn of events, either.

So the Virginia Tech panel’s report to the governor, months after the rampage, is a necessary step, a document that state lawmakers should be able to look to for advice. Cho Seung-Hui murdered 32 people on April 16, and it’s important to prevent similar incidents. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine instructed the panel to find out what happened and why, and to suggest new policies based on those findings.

But regarding guns, the panel shirked its responsibilities. The report pronounces on policies that had nothing to do with the massacre, wildly speculates about what would have happened had given factors been different, and ignores entire bodies of evidence.